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Miro Theme Barcelona

Joan Miró (1893–1983), born in Barcelona, was an artist playing a lot with the colors and forms and around the city, you will discover, just walking on the street, some works from him. In fact, in 1968, he decided to give 4 major works dedicated to his city which are:

  • the airport mosaic wall
  • the pla del’os mosaic
  • the Wife and Bird sculpture
  • the foundation

His idea was to welcome visitors at Barcelona coming by the sea, the air and the land so it will take you 1 or 2 days depending if you plan to pass a lot of time or not in the park and the foundation.

When you arrive at Barcelona via the airport, you will land normally at the Terminal 1 (T1) so take a moment to go to the Terminal 2-B (T2-B) if you have time by taking the transit bus. Once there, you will discover a big mosaic on the external wall, 9 meters wide and 5 meters high, full of colors and forms depicting a dream world. This work has been done in 1970 with the help of his friend Josep Llorens Artigas.

If you don’t come by plane and if you want to see it, assuming that you are at plaza catalunya, you will have to take the airport bus which is located in front of the El Cortes Ingles shop.

The bus will bring you to the T2 (pay attention to not take the one bringing you to the T1).

Or by metro, the easiest way is to walk up the passeig de gràcia street to take the train at passeig de gràcia station, it is a direct line to the airport station.

Once there, just cross the bridge and you will see it.

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In 1760, with the destruction of the wall, the city lost the most beautiful arabesque doors called Santa Eulàlia, which was brought by the count Berenguer IV from Almeria as war trophy, letting a big open space called Pla de l'Os.

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It was here that Miró decided in 1976 to create one of his ceramic works on la rambla street, very close to his home (passatge del crèdit 4) where he was born.

He didn’t care if people will damage it because his main idea was that people must walk on it.

In 2006, for the 30th anniversary, the City Council ordered to restore it because the work was very damaged.

Nowadays, you can see it at the boqueria square near the liceu metro station and the market La Boquería. The mosaic has the circular shape of the cosmos with white,

black, yellow, blue and red colors and you can distinguish easily a human form so pay a great attention on the ground if you don’t want to miss it.

Taking the metro L3 from liceu station to tarragona station, you will head to the Joan Miró park. In 1979, the old abattoir of the city has been removed in order to build the first big park of Barcelona. The work has

been done by a group of young architects leaded by Beth Galí in which the idea was to create a kind of puzzle of various elements in order to celebrate any types of events.

The park was named originally as Abattoir park (parc de l’escorxador) but it has been changed to Joan Miró park (c/ aragó 2) just after his death. His sculpture of 22 meters high called Wife and Bird (Dona i ocell) can be found near to the tarragona street.

Inaugurated as the park in 1983 and where there is an artificial water channel. On the opposite side, there is the public library which owns his name too.

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However, it is in the Miró Foundation (avinguda miramar 1), inaugurated in 1975, that you will find a lot of his works as sculptures, ceramics, paintings and tapestries inside a building created by Josep Lluís Sert. From the tarragona street, walk about 8 minutes until the espanya square and after take the bus 193 until the avinguda estadi (fundació Miró) stop.

Since it is the last place to go for this theme, you may want to walk until this museum but let me tell you that you will have minimum 30 minutes from plaza espanya.


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